Become The Hero of Your Life

25/04/2007

So What’s Your Hamartia? A friend and I recently found ourselves talking about a concept in Aristotle’s Poetics, which every English undergrad has to study. The concept is hamartia, from a Greek word meaning anything from an accident to a sin. The translation I’m familiar with is “fatal flaw.”

Aristotle describes what makes a tragedy. He says the terror of it is that a worthy hero falls through no fault of his own, or at least, none that he has any control over. His fatal flaw, his hamartia, causes his downfall, which he never deserves. He is, in fact, constantly trying to do the right thing, but the right thing cannot be done! The audience identifies with him and is filled with pity for him as the inevitable tragedy is played out, because it can see what he cannot.

The ancient Greeks believed that only a noble person could be a hero, but it is part of the genius of our age that we can see every single person as at least a potential hero. So it struck me with great force that Aristotle’s “formula” describes most of us. Too many of us are the tragic heroes of our own struggling lives. We do not deserve to “fall”, to fail, to be desperate or unfulfilled. We try to do the right thing, but are often thwarted, even to the point of despair. But is the tragic ending really inevitable?

Like the audience, we can often see what our neighbors and loved ones cannot, that they are being stymied by ignorance, circumstances, or most probably, by some blind spot or fatal flaw in their own make-up.

Life coaches have a name for hamartia too, and there lies the hope, because with careful guidance and constant encouragement, the invisible hamartia can be made visible, and we can prevent our lives from being adding to the store of tragic stories – there are already enough in the world!

So what’s your hamartia? Perhaps you should become the hero of your life and not its tragic hero.

Submitted by Melanie Steyn, celebrated writer, friend & contributor for kimknightcoaching